Notes and Editorial Reviews

I’ve written several times now about the Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov (b. 1937), one of the most recent Eastern European composers for whom ECM has taken up advocacy. Silvestrov is a composer whose richly tonal language is immediately appealing, but rich in subtlety as oneRead more listens ever more closely. Though their sounds couldn’t be more different, I find myself thinking of him in relation to a contemporary, Gyrörgy Kurtág. Both are composers for whom the tiny perfected gesture is critical, and a tone of hushed intimacy leads to a very deep and private communion with the listener. This is a program of all a cappella works. The relation to the Orthodox liturgical tradition is immediately obvious (even to this reviewer, who doesn’t know its literature in any depth). But the music seems extremely personal, a reverential reinvention of tradition. How does Silvestrov do it?

The composer has an unusually personal conception of harmony. He often shifts from one mode and/or tonal root to another, but the effect is not like traditional common practice (or later chromatic) harmony. Rather, lines may “drift” from one region to another, almost as though they are crossfading into different harmonies. The effect should be like going out of tune, but it’s not. I wonder if it has something to do with traditional Ukrainian choral practice, but I’m not qualified to speculate here. And one way Silvestrov seems to accomplish this is by creating a sort of musical “reverb” around the more active material in a piece, by having sustained tones (mostly in vocalise) create shimmering pedals. This effect is further multiplied when put into an acoustically reverberant space. The resultant harmonic “aura” creates a musical space that is vast enough to accommodate these aforementioned shifts and drifts.

All this produces music that is luminous. The title of the disc is “Sacred Songs” and both words are relevant. The “sacred” is obvious, both in the subject matter of the texts and the general hushed tone. But these are also very much songs in form and tone, rather than more austere “liturgical vocal music.” Just a few examples: in the Psalms and Prayers and the Two Psalms of David, I hear harmonies and hooks that feel as though they’re coming from a celestial pop song tradition, and in the “Alleluia” of the Two Spiritual Refrains, there’s a softly insistent bass bourdon that undulates beneath the melody.

I’m reviewing from an advance release packet, and it does not include texts, the only mar to an otherwise perfect product; perhaps they will be in the final booklet. Silvestrov continues to demonstrate he’s not a one-shot wonder, nor does his music coast on a New Age mysticism. Very highly recommended, especially for those who want to experience the best of contemporary choral music.